I had my AFF ground school 7 months ago, and have since had 130 jumps. I was taught the distiction between the different types of malfunctions before I made my first jump. HOWEVER, there are many things the first time jumper needs to remember and the instructors should try to keep it as simple as possible: cut away and pull your reserve without hesitation. The ONLY exception to this is a couple twists in your lines. If there's anything wrong with your canopy itself, (including line overs) go for your handles. Once you're done with your training and are applying for your A license, there's a few more things you need to go over with your instructor. This is an ideal time for them to clarify some of the times when you might want to clear a mal before going for your handles. After 20 jumps, you have gained a lot of hands on experience since your initial ground training. For instance, you can look at 100 pictures of an inflated canopy from below, but until you are there in the sky with it above your head, you don't know what it's like. Imagine a first time jump student, opening at 5500 and having a lineover, resulting in some spinning and then a couple line twists. He thinks, "well, I'm supposed to clear these twists, let me work on that... I don't start my landing pattern until 1000'. so I have time...." so he works on the line twists, then tries to fix the lineover, etc.. this all goes by as he's losing altitude.... We're not just talking about Darwinism here, Jimbo, this is keeping it as simple as possible for the AFF/AFP students. 99% of people will get a little wigged out their first jump. Once you get more experienced, obviously you can try to clear whatever you want at a high altitude.
Sorry for rambling on here, but my point is, things should be kept as SIMPLE as possible for at least the first 10 jumps.
